How to Make an American Quilt [DVD]

Excellent movie!

Best movie ever Maya Angelou was magnificent ..

It is Great

I love this coming of age movie. And I love that it’s about quilters.

It's a bit cheesy and cringey at times but I love the female togetherness aspect. It's not claiming to be something it isn't and showcases common experiences of women in various circumstances in love. Plus it has Maya Angelou in it which is just a treat.

This movie was about family and friends. Life lessons and decisions. I recommend it.

This is one of those wonderfully endearing and timeless movies that you'll watch again and again. Winona Ryder heads a large cast of top drawer actors which includes Rip Torn, Jean Simmons, Kate Capshaw, Ellen Burstyn, Alfre Woodard, Ester Roller, and Denis Arnot. Finn, a recently engaged college gal is staying with her grandmother over the summer while she works on her thesis. Her grandmother, great aunt, and friends gather together to sew a wedding quilt for her with the theme " where love resides. " As these women work together to sew the quilt they each tell their stories of hope, love, loss, forgiveness and reconciliation, personal change, friendship, and joy. Their stories weave together to form a sort of magic which is both enchanting and beautiful. As the quilt progresses we not only learn about making a quilt, we also learn about the personal emotional contribution of each quilter which actually becomes part of the finished product. The film incorporates some visually beautiful scenery and color combinations and some well done scenes of the forties and fifties. This is an especially well done "chick flick", one you're sure to remember!

Great movie I always see something different when I watch it.

This is a review of the 2008 Region 2 and 4 DVD from Universal Pictures UK. In 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby Digital 5.1, there are no extras, but the film quality is first rate in all respects. The picture especially is clear, bright and has luscious natural colour.This is critically important, because one of the stand-outs of this film is the sheer beauty of the visuals. The majority of the location work was in rural California, in the charming Moreno Valley east of LA. This is a land of rolling wooded hills and attractive orange groves, peaceful and picturesque. The director of photography was celebrated Polish cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, who won OSCARs for his work on both ‘Schindler's List’(1993) and ‘Saving Private Ryan’(1998), and has worked with Speilberg on 19 films including his latest, to be released this year. But for all his magnificent work on for example ‘War Horse’(2011) or ‘Lincoln’(2012), this must rank as one of his finest pictures.Other than the beautiful filming of locations and numerous critical flash-back scenes, some of them set several decades in the past, fabrics are also vital to the look of the film. The colours of the quilts, the way the camera captures the minutia of tiny pattern details, and careful stitching, the feeling of co-ordination and collective effort as the ladies of the Quilting Bee work on their quilt, is all lovingly conveyed by Kamiński and director Jocelyn Moorhouse. And though it is less central, they make as good a job of the paintings in the workshop of the husband of one of the Quilters.The film follows Finn Dodd, a graduate student writing up her MA, who escapes for the summer to the lovely rural home of her Grandmother and Great Aunt, as she tries to decide what she wants from life and from her devoted boyfriend, Sam. There, she and we learn the histories of the Quilting Bee members and their families, as they make Finn a marriage quilt, themed as "Where love resides”. What we all learn is how this concept has played out for each of the women, for better or worse, and indeed how to a degree, it is still playing out now. And being a small rural community, inevitably, the story of one woman has the potential to play across into the life of another in the group.Directed by a woman, with a very strong female cast including wonderful character actors Ann Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Jean Simmons and Maya Angelou, let alone Kate Nelligan, Winona Ryder and a VERY young Claire Danes, this will inevitably be labelled a ‘women’s film’. That would be to gravely undervalue the clever way the traditional role of quilts conveying genealogy is carried through as we learn the family stories of the quilt makers. Meanwhile, the idea of small pieces of a patchwork coming together to form a satisfying whole, is carried over into the film ~ very gentle, very beautiful, very satisfying.

I have been a huge Winona fan since I saw "Beetlejuice" at six years old. I am a child of the 90s and Winona played a huge role as a rolemodel."How to make an American quilt" is a film about women. I am not going to write for women, because I am tired of this use of words. Man should also see this film.This movie has an incredible cast - from Winona to Maya.It is a wonderful movie; about the hardship of the destenys that forms who We are today, and tomorrow.This is a layered film where winonas role acts like a catalysator for all this wonderful womens lifestories.I love especially the chemestry on screen behind Ellen Burstyn and Anne Bancroft.I have watched "how to make an American quilt" many times, through different stages of my life, and it always learns me something new...

It is a very pretty film, setting is lovely. Characters are interesting if a little predictable. Ryders lead role is played very well but i did find it hard to be symathethic as she was such a self obsessed girl - not many good things to say about her. A little too arty, very self indulgent. If you're in the mood for a quality, quiet little film then this will be bound to please.

Cute girly story of love, life and innocence. If you are a quilter or a crafter you will probably enjoy it too,definitely one for a girls night in. The wonderful stories sewn into the piece are beautifully told. The innocence of youth is woven into the story, not just with the bride to be but from the ladies who sew too.

Had it years ago